Pinball - I think this is the closest place to relevant to post this.

[Ginger Piglet]

Sperging ahoy - I am a pinhead. Although oddly enough it was vidya (namely Farsight Studios' excellent The Pinball Arcade) that got me as same.

I first played a pinball machine on holiday in the south of France in 1993 or so as a kid. It was The Machine: Bride of Pinbot, which, if you've not seen it, is a terrifying game themed around a sexy female robot and which in 1992 was banned from a US college campus for being too sexist. (#FlipperGate maybe?)

I also played Fish Tales there, if I remember rightly, which I enjoyed a lot more.

Over the years since then I played the odd spot of the silver ball when and where I saw one but never really got bit by the bug until I downloaded The Pinball Arcade on Steam and on Android and started playing it lots. I then started looking for machines whenever I went to a new place and found a website which tells you where to find them in your current area. They're quite a rarity today because most of them were removed from bars and pubs and cafés in favour of fucking fruit machines (ugh) and those quiz machines (semi-ugh), and found their way into the hands of private collectors and only come out once a year at exhibitions and conventions and such.

I'd like to scramble a bit of money together and buy myself one to stick in the front room. Probably a late 80s alphanumeric number that's not too expensive, like F-14 Tomcat or Swords of Fury where I can just turn up the sound and flip till I drop. If money was no object I'd buy myself a Cirqus Voltaire or No Fear or Scared Stiff, but it is an object.

Any other Kiwis into playing the silver ball? Or have a machine of their own?

 

[Van Darkholme]

I'd give one of my kidneys for my own Theater of Magic machine. I used to play them on vacation in Denmark many years ago (they switched every year or so, one year they had a Last Action Hero machine and White Water) and the last one I saw here locally was a broken WWF Royal Rumble, they quite rare indeed nowadays. Also expensive a fuck and there's also maintenance to take into account.

 

[Wallace]

God damn. Back in the day I could spend an entire afternoon pumping quarters into the Addams Family pinball machine at the amusement center on Cape Cod.

 

[dunbrine47]

Did someone say pinball?

In all seriousness I remember being obsessed with this pinball table for awhile.

 

[AnOminous]

This was pretty good.

 

[Quijibo69]

I love Twilight Zone pinball and this one:

I got good at it because I didn't want to help my mom do the laundry at the Laundromat when I was a kid.

 

[Ginger Piglet]

This was pretty good.

The only pinball machine that a heavy metal band wrote a song about how one of their number kept throwing his loose change into it.

I got good at it because I didn't want to help my mom do the laundry at the Laundromat when I was a kid.

Ahhh, that's like a perfect cultural product from 1990. I bet it even had "Say No to Drugs" on the attract mode. Plays nicely but the theme hasn't aged well.

Here's another one from that time which hasn't aged well. I last played this in a caff in Leicester a couple years back and was struck by a terrible urge to wear my hat diagonally backwards.

"Whoa, man, that's, like, TOADLY RAD!"

(Edited for typos.)

 

[XYZpdq]

Twilight Zone pinball

Word. That was a great machine.

 

[Trans Fat 41g]

I used to have one of those tabletop pinball machines. I also have an old Tiger Electronics LCD Pinball with a 1960's cotton candy blue design.

 

[Small Onion]

The ultimate.

 

[Ginger Piglet]

The ultimate.

I wish there was a YOU ARE CHAMPION rating just for this post.

 

[geodestro]

My favorite tables are the Bally branded Midway tables from the early to mid 90's. Elvira: Scared Stiff, Creature From The Black Lagoon, Twilight Zone, Who Dunitt, Theater of Magic. All great, all way too goddamn expensive nowadays!

 

[Strelok]

Anyone with pinball experience able to tell how well that Zaccaria pinball game on Steam is to the real deal? It's got recreations of a ton of their machines (them being the 3rd biggest pinball manufacturer behind Balley and Williams). Just looking at the controls options it seems to be aiming for sim instead of the usual arcade pinball on PC, but I'm wondering if anyone more knowledgeable can chime in?

 

[Army Burger]

My experience with pinball is a bit limited. I've played the 3D Space Cadet one for Windows as well as a collection of Gottlieb machines that was released on Gamecube/PS2/Xbox/Wii/PSP. I've played a few in various movie theatres. The only ones I can remember were based on the Simpsons, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Batman, Twilight Zone, Star Trek and AC/DC.

 

[Guardian G.I.]

No one has ever heard about pinball here, with the exception of Windows XP's Space Cadet.

From the tables represented in The Pinball Arcade, I like FunHouse, F-14 Tomcat and No Good Gofers the most. No idea about how good they actually are IRL - I haven't seen a single actual pinball table, let alone those.

 

[Ginger Piglet]

No one has ever heard about pinball here, with the exception of Windows XP's Space Cadet.

From the tables represented in The Pinball Arcade, I like FunHouse, F-14 Tomcat and No Good Gofers the most. No idea about how good they actually are IRL - I haven't seen a single actual pinball table, let alone those.

Go to the Pinside map (link in OP) and insert your location. You'll find out where they may be found...

Funhouse terrifies me what with that head and the creepy calliope music. Oddly enough, Red & Ted's Road Show is one of my favourites.

F-14 is awesome both on TPA and in reality. In reality it's loud as fuck. And fast as fuck. F-14 is oddly enough comparatively cheap compared to other pins; in 2014 I was offered one at £600.00 but didn't have anywhere to put it.

 

[Guardian G.I.]

Go to the Pinside map (link in OP) and insert your location. You'll find out where they may be found...

I live in the former USSR - obviously there won't be any pinball tables here.
The closest big collection of pinball tables is in Krakow, Poland - it's too far away for me.

TPA's version of Red & Ted's Road Show is nice, but it's too difficult for me. Apparently you have to nudge to make certain shots, such as the ones required to lock the balls for multiball, and it's very difficult in TPA - I either nudge too late or tilt the table.

Out of other TPA tables, I like late 80s-early 90s Gottlieb tables like Class of 1812, Cue Ball Wizard and Teed Off for their low budget-y cheesiness.
The two Black Knight tables are awesome, Terminator 2 is very good, but extremely hard (I lost many balls by launching them up the left ramp with not enough power - it goes right down the middle after that). My other favourites are Who Dunnit, Medieval Madness, Cirqus Voltaire and its soundtrack, Earthshaker and Sega's Starship Troopers.

 

[Ginger Piglet]

Had some pinball fun today on a day trip to a coastal town near where I live. Played an AC/DC Luci Premium edition. Excellent game, that is. The rules change according to which song is playing, and stackable multiballs.

 

[cmcki]

Not hugely into it, but I do enjoy pinball, and will play when I see it.
If you're ever near the area, you must go here. It is fabulous.

 

[alex_theman]

I live in the former USSR - obviously there won't be any pinball tables here.
The closest big collection of pinball tables is in Krakow, Poland - it's too far away for me.

TPA's version of Red & Ted's Road Show is nice, but it's too difficult for me. Apparently you have to nudge to make certain shots, such as the ones required to lock the balls for multiball, and it's very difficult in TPA - I either nudge too late or tilt the table.

Out of other TPA tables, I like late 80s-early 90s Gottlieb tables like Class of 1812, Cue Ball Wizard and Teed Off for their low budget-y cheesiness.
The two Black Knight tables are awesome, Terminator 2 is very good, but extremely hard (I lost many balls by launching them up the left ramp with not enough power - it goes right down the middle after that). My other favourites are Who Dunnit, Medieval Madness, Cirqus Voltaire and its soundtrack, Earthshaker and Sega's Starship Troopers.

there are 2 near the border to georgia.